OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish Saints

  • Saint Colman, March 30

    On March 30 we have yet another Saint Colman commemorated on the Irish calendars. Indeed, it seems we have more than one for there is a Saint Colman of Linns also commemorated today. Canon O’Hanlon’s account below deals with a Saint Colman who is named as the ‘Son of Ronan’, but about whom little other information has survived:

    St. Colman, Son of Ronan. 
    The Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 30th of March, records the entry of a St. Colman. The name of this saint appears twice repeated, in the published version. This is not the case, in the Franciscan copy, preserved at the Convent, Merchant’s-quay, Dublin. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, likewise, on this day was venerated, Colman, son of Ronan, son to Loarn. He descended from the race of Conall Gulban, son to Niall. We know little more regarding him.

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  • Saint Aedhan of Derrybrughas, March 29

    A saint from County Armagh is commemorated at March 29 on the Irish calendars – Aedhan of Derrybrughas. Although Canon O’Hanlon’s account below does not mention it, Pádraig Ó Riain suggests in his Dictionary of Irish Saints that today’s Saint Aedhan may be linked to a County Down saint Aedhan, ‘the layman’ commemorated on April 1:

    St. Aedan, or Aedhan, of Derrybrughas, County of Armagh. 

    The Bollandists, on the authority of the Martyrologies of Tallagh and of Marianus O’Gorman, place the festival, Aidanus de doire Bruchaisse, at the 29th of March. Aedan Dairi Brucais is now known as Derrybrughas, alias, Killyman, in the County of Armagh; and, at his church, which seems to have existed from the seventh century, the present saint was venerated.  An entry occurs, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 29th of March, Aedan Dairi Brucais. St. Edan, Bishop and Confessor, was venerated, at the 29th of March and, formerly, he had an Office of nine Lessons, as we learn, from an old Kalendar. We read, in the Martyrology of Donegal that on this day was venerated, Aedhan, of Doire Bruchaisi, or Doire Bruchuse.

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  • Saint Colga of Lusk, February 20

    February 20 is the feastday of Saint Colga the Wise, lector at Clonmacnoise, reputed teacher of the English saint Alcuin and author of a famous prayer known as the Scuab Chrabhaidh (Broom or Besom of Devotion). I was interested to see that in his entries for this day in Volume II of his Lives of the Irish Saints, Canon O’Hanlon does not begin with this famous Saint Colga but with another, lesser-known abbot of Lusk, County Dublin, who shares the same name. Indeed, it seems that Colga of Lusk is assigned this feast day by the 17th-century hagiologist Father John Colgan, simply on the grounds that this is the day when his Clonmacnoise namesake is commemorated:

    ARTICLE I.—ST. COLGA, ABBOT OF LUSK, COUNTY OF DUBLIN

    [SEVENTH CENTURY.]

    EVERY step, taken in religious progress, tends to purify and to ennoble a monk’s profession. Nor can it fail to impart a generous and an honourable impulse, in the home of his choice. Colgan acknowledges his inability to discover any important biographical particulars, regarding this saint, with the exception of a few, which are entered in his collection. The Bollandists and Dr. Lanigan have only a passing allusion to him. It is supposed, that our saint was son to Moenaegh, and that he presided over the monastery of Lusk, as abbot. This establishment is thought to date back so far as before the close of the fifth century, when St. MacCuilinn or Macculind, its founder, is said to have died. The place is certainly most ancient, and it has many historic associations of very great importance. In the old graveyard may still be seen a very perfect specimen of an Irish round tower, attached to a mediaeval church, which has lately undergone restoration, in a very excellent style of Gothic architecture. No doubt, a more ancient church occupied this site. This holy man flourished about the year 690, or even later ; for, he is named, as one of those who subscribed with other prelates of Ireland, to the Acts of a synod, held by Adamnan, about the year 695 or 696. A copy of these decrees, called the Cain Adhamnain, or the “canons of Adamnan” had been in Colgan’s possession. He has also placed on record some of the subscribers’ names, to these statutes. Wherefore our saint was not identical with one bearing a similar name, and exercising a like office, in the same place, and whose death occurred A.D. 782, according to the Annals of the Four Masters. The Colga, who died in 782, or more correctly, 787, is expressly named in our Annals, as son to Crunnmail. The present St. Colga did not long survive the year, in which the celebrated synod of Adamnan had been held  for, we read, about the death of his successor, an abbot of Lusk, who departed this life, in the year 731. The present holy man died, probably, near the beginning of the eighth century ; nor do we know what reason, his namesake, Father John Colgan, had, for giving him a festival at this date, beyond the circumstance of another celebrated Colga or Colgu having been venerated on the 20th day of February.